After decrying the inconvenience of Japanese cuisinary service, I must balance that out with a report of the other element of Japanese society so well known overseas, consumer electronics. Customer service in this regard, in my experience, is superb, as long as you are in the warranty period. If you are no longer warrantied, don't even try to convince, cajole, plead, beg, or whine your way to an exception; just pay the money to get it fixed.
But if you are in the warranty period, just make that initial phone call, explain that the appliance doesn't work, and they send someone to your house within 48 hours to fix it. The cool thing is that they bring modular parts with them and swap it out in the living room. I'm sure this is the same thing they do if you send in your VCR or whatever, but its kind of cool to have the guy open up the VCR/DVD combo deck, remove a couple screws, yank the whole tape apparatus, and replace it new from a box. Thanks!
Same thing happened today with my digital satellite tuner. My reception has been shit lately, full of pixelated artifacts and dropped signals. We called in yesterday and today a guy shows up and switched out the circuit board. Slick. I think I actually fixed the problem beforehand by wiggling the cable at the dish end and tightening the connector by the quarter turn it was loose, but that doesn't matter.
Even Apple Computers has been great. My remote for the iPod frayed at the end. I filled out the online service form and got a brandnew remote with headphones 3 days later. I dropped my iPod and it died last week; today I got a replacement machine (I did have to send in the broken one, but they sent me a box and accepted the shipping charges). Based on reports from other people dealing with Apple in the US, it doesn't seem like the service is that great. I suspect that the Japanese expectations are carried over in that corporation here.
I guess in the end it isn't all that revolutionary that repair come to your home and fix stuff there, but it's still cool. Considering that most Japanese families have a stay-at-home wife, there is someone there to receive the repairman. Plus people rely on public transportation so much more here, and its hard to ask a housewife to carry a VCR on the train and then on to the local repair shop.
It's also a good example of Japanese over-employment, but I'll talk about that more later.
Posted by Nutrimentia at April 23, 2003 05:30 PM | TrackBack